Former DePaul golfer Josh Scarborough is the Editor-in Chief of the DePaul Law Review.

Oct. 9, 2012

CHICAGO - When it comes to life after DePaul athletics, Josh Scarborough is hitting it right down the middle of the fairway.

Scarborough, a Blue Demon golfer from 2002-06, holds the prestigious position of Editor-in-Chief of the DePaul Law Review.

"Pure elation" was the immediate reaction when Scarborough was notified last spring.

"I feel comfortable in a leadership position, and that comes from being a captain on the golf team," said Scarborough, who took three years off after graduation and worked as a club pro at the Bryn Mawr Country Club in Lincolnwood and the River Forest Country Club in Elmhurst.

"I have the ability to lead by example. In my attempts to make the Blue Demon golf team better, I couldn't ask a teammate to do anything I wasn't willing to do. I have to be willing to go above and beyond before anyone else."

That meant being in the forefront of the golf program on and off the course.

"You are forced to keep up with your academics as a golfer," Scarborough said. "People don't realize how uniquely difficult the sport can be.

"With most other sports, you practice right on campus. Our golf team had a 30-to-45-minute drive to a golf course, and we did this five or six days a week. We practiced our short game for an hour and a half and then played nine holes. After that came the drive back into the city.

"We would go to class all morning, leave at noon and get back around 8:30 or 9 p.m. Because of the unique nature of the sport, we'd be gone three or four days at a time on road trips. You'd get your studying done on plane rides, van rides, in hotels. You are forced to put your priorities in order."

No wonder Scarborough has done so well in law school.

"Going through that schedule has helped prepare me for law school," he said. "You find out that law school is substantially more difficult and competitive than undergraduate school. It can take one year to understand what you're trying to grasp.

"My first year at law school was the hardest. You are competing against your peers for grades and looking for ways to distinguish yourself from others. I'd spend 60-to-70 hours a week studying and researching.

"The approach that works for me is that I shut out everything. I've had very little time for golf since I've been in law school. There have been a few times in the summer when I'd golf with former teammates or with soccer and tennis alums that have stayed in touch.

"It's a lot more fun to golf now. Before, it was a constant grind to get better. Now, it's more enjoyable to just go out and play."

He won't ever forget his collegiate debut.

"I was pretty nervous going into my first tournament as a freshman," Scarborough said. "Would I be able to compete with the better players at the collegiate level?

"When I qualified and broke par, I knew I could succeed at the Division I level."

Scarborough tied for ninth place at the Kauai Collegiate Cup in Hawaii as a sophomore, and his 13th-place finish helped the Blue Demons win the Ironhorse Intercollegiate in Tuscola, Ill. as a junior. He shot a 68 in the second round of the Missouri Bluffs Challenge as a senior.

And yet, numbers alone don't begin to tell the story of Scarborough's golf experience at DePaul. In his four years on the traveling team, he competed at tournaments in Hawaii, California, Florida and South Carolina.

"I'll always remember going to Hawaii my sophomore year and spending eight days on Kauai," Scarborough said. "We played at the St. Regis Princeville Resort right off the Pacific Ocean and our team finished fourth. Kyle Patterson was fifth and I tied for ninth.

"Playing golf in Hawaii is a win-win situation. We worked hard and practiced hard, and it was really a great trip to take in the middle of March.

"We went on a hiking excursion and got to see all the inner parts of Kauai. We saw a lot of natural stuff in the middle of the island. We went to a waterfall and went by these cliffs with a thousand-foot drop. It was a gorgeous area."

But one thing Scarborough missed out on was a terrific home golf course.

"I went golfing with our coach Betty Kaufmann one time at Ruffled Feathers in Lemont, the golf team's home course," Scarborough said. "I was really envious. We never had anything like that when I was at DePaul.

"Betty has done a great job keeping in touch with me and a lot of other golfers. She makes a concerted effort to make sure we maintain close ties to DePaul."

Those formal ties will come to an end in June when Scarborough is scheduled to graduate with a law degree. He will take the bar exam in July.

"Over the summer, I worked at the Ungaretti & Harris law firm in Chicago," Scarborough said. "They have offered me a full-time position after law school."